


Human Nature

by shuuvee



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Angst, Eating Disorders, Fantasy, First Dates, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Kissing, M/M, Mild Language, Rating May Change, side!markhyuck, side!yutae - Freeform, the eating disorder tag isn't exactly correct but i want to have it just in case it's problematic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-26
Updated: 2018-11-26
Packaged: 2019-08-29 14:34:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16745839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shuuvee/pseuds/shuuvee
Summary: Doyoung and Ten are both looking for something a little more human than they're used to.





	Human Nature

“Who’d you dress up for?”

Ten stopped and sighed. He had roomed with lots of different people throughout college, and most of them neatly sorted into two categories: friendly, quiet, the keep-to-themselves type and the oblivious, irreverent, hardly-tolerable type. Donghyuck didn’t fit either of those types. He was responsible, easygoing, and helpful enough -- but Donghyuck also made it his life’s mission to butt into Ten’s life whenever and however he could. Ten lowkey regretted agreeing to room with his best friend’s little brother. Not that he _hated_ Donghyuck, but getting advice from an 18 year-old seemed a little beneath him. Especially because his roommate still hadn’t moved on from his emo phase, dyeing his hair dark-red, wearing tight, black clothes everyday, and even getting a piercing or two. 

“Oh, you know,” Ten mused. “Just going out for a few drinks.”

Donghyuck tutted. “Right,” the younger boy chided, laying back down on their faux-leather sofa, his feet dangling over one of the armrests. He picked up his phone, absentmindedly poking away at the screen. “Don’t lie to me, hyung, I know you haven’t worn that sweater since you broke up with Johnny Seo three months ago.”

Ten crossed his arms. He _hated_ hearing Johnny’s name, especially from someone with Donghyuck’s know-it-all attitude. His high-pitched, lilting voice didn’t make it any more palatable. His roommate just loved to challenge him, to make his usually ice-cool blood boil a little. “So what?” he challenged, trying to sound gruff and intimidating -- an attempt that probably fell flat considering how he looked.

“L’see,” Donghyuck replied, still lounging on the sofa. He held up one hand, extending one finger at a time as he ticked through his arguments. “First,” his roommate started, “You’re wearing that big, oversized sweater that you like to wear when you’re going out. Second, you actually put some product in your hair, tousling it up a little. Third, you put a long earring in one ear but only one ear.”

Ten unfolded his arms, shooting a puzzled look toward Donghyuck. “You noticed that all in the five seconds I walked from my room to the front door?” he quizzed. “Sometimes you’re such a smartass, and I hate it.”

“C’mon, hyung, I wouldn’t be very good at my job if I didn’t notice when someone was trying to get some. I may not be of-age, but I know what’s up.” Donghyuck sat up, putting his phone down and looking over at Ten from the living room. He ran one of his hands through his cherry-red hair, ruffling it a little. “For what it’s worth, you look good, hyung.”

Ten scoffed. “We’ll see.”

“I mean it!” Donghyuck insisted with a smile. Even if Donghyuck liked to get all in his business, he usually wasn’t trying to be an ass about it. _Usually_. Donghyuck had his own sweet little annoying way of being Ten’s friend -- it was tolerable, he had decided. He’d have to text Jaehyun about it later. 

Ten shook his head. “Thanks. Maybe I’ll find myself a Mark Lee tonight,” he offhandedly added, grabbing his wallet and his keys. Jamming them into his pockets, he unlocked the front door to their apartment and disappeared into the dimly-lit hallway. “Oh, and Donghyuck? Restock the fridge please.”

He closed the door before he heard the rest of Donghyuck’s indignant protesting. For all of his insolence, Donghyuck would do what he asked... well, only after he complained about it for twenty minutes to Mark. Maybe Ten needed his own Mark just so he could have someone to bitch to about Donghyuck. Or someone to guilt into doing his own chores for him, as he was sure Donghyuck was doing right then and there. Donghyuck wasn’t the only one who had game; Ten was more than capable of flirting his way through a night’s worth of free drinks. 

He wasn’t looking for that tonight, though.

*

***

* * *

***

*

Doyoung tried not to look at the “Humans Only” sign while hastily shuffling into the bar.

Something about seeing the sign -- that it was real, that he could physically touch it -- made him feel more than a little… _dirty_ about this. The plain black text seemed to taunt him, to make him question whether he was really _that_ type of person. He was embarrassed. Ashamed, really. It was like he was admitting that stupid childhood problems defined who he was as an adult, that he couldn’t enter a relationship with a pixie or a werewolf or a ghoul. On some level, he felt like a racist. Doyoung was prejudicing each and every magical creature as being like those assholes who tortured him through middle and high school. Don’t get him wrong, he certainly didn’t think that humans were inherently better than any of them. He just didn’t want to relive the pain of his childhood in the most important relationship of his life.

He smiled and nodded at the bar hostesses camped out near the front, motioning toward the speed-dating sign-in table. By the time he walked over to the table, the small crowd had cleared out to go order drinks at the bar, and Doyoung was scribbling in his name by himself. Something about that small, inconsequential series of events killed his confidence; even when he wandered up to the bar, he actively avoided talking to any of the other ladies and guys hanging out around the bar, pulling out his phone to check his zero notifications for the umpteenth time. Doyoung ordered an IPA and pretended that he was reading an extra-long text, when in reality he was staring at his home screen’s unmoving, unchanging arrangement of app icons.

Maybe he should’ve stuck to dating apps. He had tried downloading a humans-only platform a few weeks ago, but even that freaked him out. After opening the app once, signing up with a lame selfie and some half-assed tidbits about Dongyoung aka Doyoung, and instantly getting a bunch of creepy messages, he had resigned himself to being single forever. Well, single forever until Yuta learned that Doyoung was thinking like that, insisting that his friend try a speed-dating circuit. 

Doyoung slacked and slacked and slacked, not venturing out of his comfort zone until Yuta literally dragged him out of the apartment. By the time he finally squeaked out why he was so hesitant to go to a normal speed-dating event, it only took Yuta five minutes to find one that satisfied Doyoung’s conditions.

Yuta didn’t judge. He knew that Doyoung’s childhood had been hell, and it wasn’t like Doyoung acted like prejudiced asshole or anything. In fact, Doyoung was pretty good friends with Taeyong, a pixie by birth and Yuta’s longtime boyfriend. The thought of getting romantically attached to someone who might turn on him like his childhood friends -- well, it was anxiety-inducing. Paralyzing, really.

When the bartender finally returned with his draft IPA, he gratefully accepted the uncapped beer and his credit card back. Doyoung meandered back over to the speed-dating table, taking a seat at the very back of the bar. He didn’t feel like himself. This was so un-Doyoung-like, he had decided. Yuta had picked out his outfit (mostly from Yuta’s clothes), and that coupled with his own crippling apprehension about the whole speed-dating thing… to be honest, it was enough to make him wish he hadn’t just bought that beer so he could just leave and pretend to do something else for the next two hours. 

Doyoung had barely two seconds to himself before someone more social than him yanked the chair opposite on the other side of the table out. By the time he looked up, the new person was already staring right at him, a friendly-looking smile plastered on his face.

“I know this seat’s not taken because it’s a speed-dating event,” the boy playfully offered, grinning at his own joke. 

Doyoung’s sarcasm took over, responding for him. “Actually, my anxiety was sitting there,” he deadpanned, trying not to focus on how amazingly out-of-his-league the other boy was. His partner started laughing, though. He still hadn’t decided whether this was going to be a disappointment because now cute-boy’s expectations were higher but his delivery was surely gonna get worse or because he was a potato trying to flirt with a ten-outta-ten. Honestly, he was really surprised that a _boy_ picked him out first. The “boy” part wasn’t a problem -- Doyoung was the B in LGBT -- but for a gender-neutral speed-dating event? Well, he expected a girl to pick him out first. Not a guy who looked like he modeled on the side. 

When he stopped laughing, the other boy smiled again, his eyes equally as warm and friendly as his grin. “That was funny,” he lilted. “I give that joke a…”

He pointed down toward his nametag, and Doyoung almost snorted his beer out of his nose when he read it.

“Ten!” the boy finished, following his joke with a huge toothy smile. It was a dumb joke, sure, but even his partner -- Ten -- seemed to acknowledge that. “My name’s actually, Ten,” he lightheartedly added.

Doyoung sheepishly scratched the back of his head, letting his wit do the work again. “You’re definitely the first Ten who’s said more than five words to me.”

Ten didn’t seem all that amused, his smile shrinking a little. He still seemed happy, but Doyoung was nervous: he read everything like it was a referendum on his nonexistent, unpracticed flirting skills. “Sorry, you probably get that joke a lot,” he quickly mumbled.

“At least you changed it up a bit,” Ten suggested. He leaned forward, elbows not leaving the table while his mouth connected with the straw to his fruity-looking umbrella cocktail. Ten took a few sips, wincing a little when the alcohol hit him. Doyoung had known Ten for all of ten seconds, but he had quickly decided that that was the most Ten thing he’d seen out of those entire ten seconds. Not that he minded. It was cute, and it basically reaffirmed his working impression that Ten was definitely, 100% out of his league.

Doyoung didn’t know that humans could be that pretty.

“Oh, you know,” Doyoung nervously continued. “I try to change up my lame flirting to fit the situation.”

His partner smiled again, resting his chin onto the palms of his hands. “ _Cute_ ,” Ten muttered, and Doyoung tried not to let the butterflies in his stomach flutter too loudly.

Doyoung was _intrigued_ to say the least. Ten seemed to genuinely like him, which was something that Doyoung wasn’t used to with humans. Ordinarily, he attracted magical beings. Even Taeyong admitted that he found Doyoung wildly attractive, but he wasn’t sure why. When it came to humans, though, Doyoung was vanilla. Boring. So to walk into a random speed-dating place and get hit on in less than thirty seconds? And not just get hit on by a nobody but by someone who looked like Ten? It was unreal.

Ten was _so_ pretty. Big, fluttery eyes seemed to watch him like Ten thought that Doyoung was the only boy the other boy had ever seen. Meanwhile, he could tell that Ten was small, definitely smaller than him, but he seemed well-built and toned if his collarbones were anything to go by. The big fluffy sweater matched his personality and his blue-gray hair. Meanwhile, his skin was pale, almost unhealthily so. But his eyes and facial features betrayed his skin tone, conveying a vivacious warmth that seemed just so _Ten_. Not that Doyoung knew much about his partner. At the very least, he knew that Ten was attractive, that Ten thought he was funny, and that he was at least somewhat determined to keep this going.

“So, um, what brought you here?”

Ten cocked an eyebrow. “I’m single?” he suggested, an amused smirk taking the place of his smile. Ten was the natural social butterfly to Doyoung’s naturally awkward armadillo.

“No, I meant --” Doyoung replied, perhaps a little too loud. Ten seemed even more amused by just how invested he was in this, taking another sip of his cocktail. “I meant, you could’ve talked to anyone else, but you chose the loner at the back of the bar, you know?”

Ten finished sipping his mixed drink, wincing a little less this time. He quickly recovered, pretending to be deep in thought. “I guess I wanted to know what kind of guy drinks draft IPAs at a cocktail bar.”

“Oh,” Doyoung mentioned. “The type of guy who gets drunk off of one drink.”

“Is that the same as the type of guy who forgets his nametag?”

Doyoung momentarily panicked, looking down at his sleeveless shirt and realizing that _yes_ , he had indeed totally forgotten to fill out a nametag when he signed in. “Oh shit,” he murmured, getting up from the table and jogging back over to the clipboards. After scribbling _Doyoung_ on the name tag, he jogged back over toward the table, discovering that Ten had been watching him the whole time. Ten seemed eminently entertained by his antics, and it made Doyoung feel a little more embarrassed than he cared to admit. It didn’t help when Ten lazily muttered something along the lines of “You have a nice ass,” but Doyoung was too busy dying on the inside thinking about the implications of that comment (was Ten _really_ checking him out?) to hear exactly what Ten said.

“I, uh, never noticed?” he hesitantly replied, earning another bout of giggling from the ever-amused Ten. “I’m Doyoung by the way, but, uh, I guess you know that now?”

Just as Doyoung was motioning toward his nametag, the organizer started talking through the microphone near the head of the bar.

“Alright folks, let’s get started for tonight’s speed-dating event. Find your first partner and start introducing yourself. You’ll have five minutes to talk, then we’ll change it up.”

Doyoung looked back over at Ten, who was holding out his hand and had locked eyes with him.

“Hi, I’m Ten,” he joked, and Doyoung couldn’t help but laugh while shaking his partner’s hand.

He couldn’t help but think about how cold Ten’s hands were for someone who seemed so hot.

*

***

* * *

***

*

“By the way, I invited him over.”

Ten stopped cleaning a wine glass, eyes peering over the bar counter in their kitchen to evaluate just how Donghyuck responded to the news that someone would be desecrating their sanctum. Despite having a non-functional nose -- well, at least non-functional in terms of breathing -- Donghyuck was weird about smells. He didn’t like certain scents in the apartment, so much so that he made Ten change his cologne when he moved in. Not to mention that Donghyuck was weirdly flirty and more than a little ridiculous whenever Ten had a date.

Oh, and he hadn’t mentioned Doyoung _at all_ yet. 

On second thought, maybe he really should’ve had this conversation more than five minutes before Doyoung was due to get here.

“I knew it!” Donghyuck shouted, pumping his fist a little. “I knew it, I knew it, I knew it! I knew you had a _him_. You seemed a little less undead lately, Tenny-hyung.” 

Ten instantly frowned. Donghyuck always had a knack for ruining his good moods. “What’s that supposed to mean,” he challenged, setting the wine glass down.

“We’ve been over this!” Donghyuck shouted, kicking his feet up on the armrest of the couch. “I’m a make-up artist, Ten. Do you think I can’t tell when you’re trying to impress someone?”

“You can pretend that you don’t and let me live,” Ten muttered, moving onto drying a second wine glass. “I’m assuming you’re okay with him coming over? You can have the leftovers of whatever we order.”

Ten’s gaze drifted upward, catching the tail-end of Donghyuck’s pungent frown. “Ha, ha, so funny. Unless he’s on the menu, I don’t want any of it.”

“It was a joke.”

“A bad one,” Donghyuck sardonically added. “I’m fine with him being over but you’ll be disinfecting the whole place if he smells rancid.”

“I’m more concerned about whether you’ll play nice, Hyuck.”

Donghyuck quickly scoffed, insulted at the notion that he would be anything other than the perfect wingman. Ironic considering Donghyuck had no game unless it was Mark.

“Listen, I want you to get some more than just about anybody, Tenny. You nag less when you’re getting laid on the regular.”

Ten shook his head. “I should’ve told Jaehyun no,” he said to himself while uncorking the bottle of red wine he had bought just for tonight. He preemptively poured Doyoung a glass while Donghyuck pretended to be all offended.

“Wait… is he a human?”

Ten looked down at the bottle of wine and then back up at Donghyuck. “Uh, yeah.”

“Does he know about… you know?”

Ten was in the middle of pouring a bottle of Type AB into his wine glass when he realized that he hadn’t told Donghyuck that important detail. “No,” he answered.

Donghyuck sat up, pausing for a moment. “When’s he getting here?”

“In like five minutes.”

“Shit, hyung!” Donghyuck shouted, leaping off of the couch. “Shit shit shit shit. You didn’t tell me that he didn’t _know_ and he’s getting here in _five minutes_. You need to -- we need to put out all the candles, get the fake garlic out, lock up the fridge, _shit_ , did you clean up your room. You need to…”

Donghyuck’s voice trailed off when he looked over at him, a disappointed scowl becoming Donghyuck’s go-to moniker now.

“You need to change into something less revolting, hyung,” Donghyuck muttered. “And I’ll try to do all those things before tall, dark, and handsome comes to meet ditzy, dumb, and stupid.”

“Hey, that’s --”

“-- No back-talking until you’ve got a pair of skinny jeans and a muscle tee on, hyung,” Donghyuck demanded. Ten wanted to protest, but his roommate had a point. Who was he to complain? This was the fastest that he’d seen Donghyuck move, like, _ever_ , his cherry-red hair bobbing up and down as he ran from one end of the kitchen to the other. And if Donghyuck was gonna do all the cleaning for once? What could go wrong, Ten mused. He hesitantly walked back toward his room.

“The _black_ muscle tee, hyung.”

* * *

“Wow, you clean up well.”

Donghyuck perked up, not stopping his rhythmic motion of massaging the couch with a lint roller. He looked like he had aged 100 years, but Ten wouldn’t dare tell his roommate about the stress lines popping up around his lips… he’d never hear the end of it. The ever-sassy Donghyuck took one look at him, tutted, and muttered “So do you” before pulling out another candle for the living room. Just walking in, he could tell that his roommate had fluffed the pillows, dusted the coffee table, picked up the blankets off the floor, opened the blinds, and lit a scented candle in the kitchen. Maybe he should give Donghyuck more chores?

“This is a one time thing, by the way,” Donghyuck lilted, setting the candle down on the coffee table. Holding the wick with two fingers, Donghyuck quickly scratched it, igniting a small flame to burn the scented candle away. Ten shook his head. Mark, who was easily amused by just about everything, loved that little trick, even if every vampire could do it. “I can’t believe you haven’t told him yet.”

Donghyuck yanked off a strip from the lint roller. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me that you hadn’t told him,” he added, tossing the used lint roller paper into their living room waste bin.

“It just… sorta slipped my mind?” Ten explained, trying not to sound too fake. Donghyuck wasn’t really buying it, and he didn’t blame him.

Ten knew exactly how much he worked his ass off to meet a normal human. He had to bribe his local alchemist friend, Kun, to give him a Human Transformation Potion. And by “bribe,” he meant beg and plead until Kun finally gave in to his puppy-dog eyes. The potion still cost him a fortune, and it wasn’t particularly effective. It got him in the door of the humans-only event for speed-dating at the local bar, but it didn’t do much else. He had to throw up the cocktail he was sipping midway through the night, and he just prayed Doyoung didn’t notice that he didn’t eat or drink anything else after that. Long story short, Ten made a very concerted effort to pass off as human, and he certainly thought about it a lot. It didn’t slip his mind, he just didn’t want to talk about it.

Humans who were into magical beings tended to be wild -- only in it for the hook-ups. Ten was tired of the one-night stands, and he was tired of fairies and pixies and others shunning him when they realized that he wasn’t an incubus, just a pretty vampire. Other vampires had power dynamics that he just wasn’t into sorting through. He just wanted to meet someone normal who liked him for who he was, not someone who wanted to get off on some vampire kink for a few hours. 

“Sure it did,” Donghyuck feigned. “Should I just tell him about us tonight?”

“No!” Ten quickly shouted. “No, no way, not at all. He doesn’t know, and he shouldn’t know yet, Hyuck.”

Donghyuck’s face contorted in disgust. Ten was being coy... guarded, really, about the whole thing. Each moment he seemed to be digging himself a deeper hole, and Donghyuck knew he wasn’t even getting half the story. The kid was inordinately lazy, but he wasn’t stupid. Before his peeved roommate could probe further, a loud knock came from their apartment door. Both of their heads jerked to look over at the door. “Wasn’t he supposed to ring the bell first?” Donghyuck hissed. “I need to go change, I look like a potato!”

Ten tried not to think about how Donghyuck in his potato look was somehow more fashionable than he was when he actually tried. 

While Donghyuck hurried off toward his room, Ten slowly meandered to the front door, looking through the peephole to confirm that his visitor was indeed Doyoung. And, shit, Doyoung it was -- Doyoung wearing an extra low-cut v-neck sweater with seemingly nothing underneath. Even the fishbowl-like view from the peephole was enough for Ten to see that. His date made him look like a potato, too.

Ten opened the door, a light “Doyoungie!~” springing from his lips. He pulled the tall human into a hug, and Doyoung was a little surprised by the touchyness until he eased into the hug.

“Hi Ten,” he replied, his voice level and husky. Ten felt Doyoung’s voice rumble right through him in a way he didn’t expect. 

Ten motioned toward the living room, ignoring the rustling from Donghyuck’s room. “My roommate’s around tonight, if that’s okay. I told him not to be too annoying, but it’s going to be a real struggle for him.”

Doyoung chuckled, slipping off his shoes. “Taeyong’s kinda like that sometimes, but only when you rile him up.”

“If he gets riled up around pretty boys, I can only imagine how he is around you,” Ten quickly commented, grabbing Doyoung by the hand and pulling him toward the couch. Doyoung had less of a laugh this time and more of an awkward coughing fit. “Sorry, too much flirting too fast?”

“I just forgot how _good_ you are at it,” his date huffed, intertwining his fingers in Ten’s. He quickly remembered that Doyoung’s hands were bigger than his, and it made him hyper-aware of just how effortlessly attractive Doyoung was all the time. They both fell onto the couch, Ten curling up into a compact ball while Doyoung spread his legs a little more than he should have for Ten’s health.

Without much warning, Donghyuck came bursting out of his room, more dressed up than Ten and Doyoung combined. He switched to more of a normal entrance when he realized that he was being watched, but it was still overly dramatic, overly flirty, and overly _Donghyuck_.

“What?” Donghyuck innocently asked, running one hand through his deep red hair. “Don’t stop flirting just because I’m here.”

“That’s exactly why we’re gonna stop flirting,” Ten fired back, earning a giggle from Doyoung and another annoyed look from Donghyuck. 

Meanwhile, the younger boy sighed. “Just because I’m effortlessly better than you, Tenny-hyung, doesn’t mean you have to give up.” Donghyuck was supremely satisfied with his snarky little comment, adjusting the sleeves on his fancy-looking button-up. Ten was too busy rolling his eyes to pay much attention to Donghyuck’s stupid smirk -- not to mention Doyoung started tracing circles on the back of the hand he was holding.

“I see what you mean about him being annoying,” Doyoung deadpanned, earning a scandalous scowl from Donghyuck.

* * *

One hour and approximately 1200 calories of take-out Chinese food later, Ten was thoroughly enamored with Doyoung yet again. They had been playing footsie underneath the dining table for the better part of 20 minutes, and the peppy electroswing Ten picked for ambiance was nice and light. Donghyuck had long since retreated to his room, lighting at least thirteen scented candles in his own room because of the pungent order from the take-out. For someone who acted so smug, Donghyuck really did have a thing with smells. Meanwhile, Doyoung was halfway through his glass of wine, and, ever the lightweight, he had loosened up quite a bit. Ten had finished his Type AB a while ago, it was the only thing that had helped him get through the Chinese food. He knew he was getting close to gagging it all back up anyways.

The un-sexy parts of being a vampire, Ten had decided.

“And Taeyong calls _me_ the mom friend for nagging him about picking up his laundry,” Doyoung continued, his voice dramatic and airy. “Well, _excuse me_ for wanting a clean apartment. I’m not the mom friend because I have common decency. I can’t even cook -- I’m the gay who can’t cook, which is why I didn’t invite you over, babe.”

Ten smirked. “It’s not like I cooked.”

“It’s not like I’d be able to get our apartment to look this classy and nice,” Doyoung reasoned, leaning back in his seat. He downed the rest of his glass of wine, but Ten was too focused on the uneasy feeling in his stomach. He was getting close to needing to take care of himself.

“I think -- would you mind if I went to the restroom?”

Doyoung paused, smiling a little. “Of course not. You’re lucky we’ve only been dating for a few weeks, _Ten_ , otherwise I’d insist on joining you.”

Ten nervously laughed. “Right, it’s a little too soon for that.”

Escaping before Doyoung changed his mind, Ten wandered down his hallway, snaking into the bathroom. He closed the door behind him, and found the hidden stash of candies on the bottom shelf of the medicine cabinet. They weren’t really candies -- they were gag drops, specifically designed for vampires to cough up whatever they had eaten. Ten popped one his mouth, knowing that it was only going to take a few seconds for the drop to take effect. The whole process of eating would probably be better if he could actually taste the food he was shoving down his throat. Then again, this part would suck more if he could taste that too.

Ten opened up the toilet, getting on his knees and waiting for the food to come back up. He was granted his wish, and he remained kneeled over the toilet, spilling his guts until nothing more came out. It was gross, for sure. As he was wrapping up, Ten heard the door quickly open and shut, and he started panicking.

He turned around, seeing an angry-looking Donghyuck hovering over him. “You know you’re not supposed to do that, hyung,” Donghyuck spat. “You need to just tell him.”

Ten wiped his mouth with a tissue, spritzing his face with some more cologne to get the smell of Chinese food off of him -- and to piss Donghyuck off a little. “It’s not that simple,” Ten quietly commented. “We met at, um…”

“What? A gay vampire bar?”

“A _humans-only_ place,” Ten answered, bracing for what would surely be Donghyuck’s dramatic reaction. 

It sure was dramatic.

“Why the hell would you do _THAT_!?”

“Why the hell did you come into the bathroom to interrogate me?” Ten challenged, stepping around Donghyuck and opening the door. “I’m going back to my date that’s going very well, thank you very much. But I’m sure you already knew that if you were listening to our conversation as much as you were listening to me heave my guts out in the bathroom.”

Curse vampires and their sensitive hearing. Ten quickly opened and closed the door, turning off the lights in the bathroom, where Donghyuck still was, for good measure. It was the little things to assert his dominance that helped make living with Donghyuck tolerable. Just like how it was the little things that helped him win Doyoung over. He was good at little things, just not big, important things.

Like telling Doyoung that he was actually a vampire.

When he returned to the dining table, Doyoung was nowhere to be found. He looked over at the living room, but he didn’t see his date on the couch or anywhere else. Did he leave? No, there’s no way Doyoung would’ve left like that. He was awkward but not rude. Then again, he was pretty drunk… Just then, Ten heard shuffling from the kitchen, so he walked past the dining table to see if Doyoung was in there.

He panicked for the second time in thirty seconds when he realized that Doyoung was the source of that noise, and he was making all that noise because he had opened up the fridge that Donghyuck was _supposed_ to lock: their blood fridge. Doyoung had pulled out a flask of blood, and he was squinting to read the fine print on the flask itself. “Type AB,” he murmured.

_No, not the good shit_ , Ten thought to himself.

“Oh, you don’t want that,” Ten pleaded, quickly walking over toward Doyoung. “That’s, um, Donghyuck’s moonshine, and he has a weird system for naming the different mixtures. He’s a weird boy,” Ten rambled, trying to seem at least somewhat believable. Maybe Doyoung was drunk enough to go for it? He grabbed the flask out of Doyoung’s hands and shoved it back in the fridge.

“Donghyuck would be mad if he knew someone touched his moonshine,” Ten continued, locking the mini-fridge back up. “Let me get you some more wine, babe.”

He looked over toward the taller boy, hoping that Doyoung would buy it, that he would buy all of it. Meanwhile, Doyoung seemed like he was mulling over everything Ten had just said, deciding whether any of it was true or not. Type AB? A deep-red flask? Insisting that it had to be locked up? It seemed fishy, all of it. At least Donghyuck had actually forgotten to restock the fridge, so it didn’t look as suspicious as it could have been. He was still worried that Doyoung was going to add it all up, even in his mildly-drunk state.

When Doyoung smiled, Ten was pretty sure everything was okay. “He does seem pretty weird,” Doyoung quipped.

*

***

* * *

***

*

“Happy eight-week anniversary!” Ten blurted out, holding out a discrete felt box. It was dark black, and no bigger than his palm. Doyoung had a flash of gay panic cross his mind before realized that Ten wasn’t like _that_ , rushing into something that he wasn’t ready for.

Eight weeks was his next thought.

His thing with Ten was now the longest relationship he had ever been in. When Doyoung thought about it more, it actually made a lot of sense. Compared to all of his previous relationships, this one was the most genuine and real. His breath was taken away every time he saw Ten, and he loved his bubbly-yet-sassy personality. It counterweighted his more direct-but-shy demeanor well. Ten wasn’t just in it because Doyoung was another pretty face, even if Ten took plenty of time to sprinkle sweet compliments about how beautiful he was.

“Wow,” Doyoung mouthed, gently grabbing the black box. He tried not to feel so cliche about the whole thing, but the only words that popped into his mind were the boring ones. “You didn’t have to…”

“Please, Doyoungie,” Ten lilted. “I have to remind you why you’re still dating me. You know, besides my fantastic looks, killer personality, and fun-sized packaging.”

One of the other things Doyoung liked about Ten: how comfortable he was with his height. He _was_ fun-sized, and Ten’s head fit right in the crook of his neck. Ten’s lips felt so nice against the bare skin of his shoulder.

Doyoung put his fingers along the edge of the box, preparing to open it. He looked over the box to see Ten’s expectant face, like a child waiting to open gifts on Christmas morning. Except Ten wasn’t even the one getting a gift -- Doyoung giggled a little, and returned to the box, slowly pulling it open. He peeked through the slit, and saw two glinting spots inside, the light from the lampposts reflecting even through the tiny opening in the box. “Earrings,” he breathed, opening the box all the way.

“They’re so pretty,” he murmured, pulling out one of the earrings with his free hand. It was long and dangly, designed to be showy and flashy. He _loved_ it. Doyoung wasn’t that loud with his personality, but he liked to be aggressive with his fashion choices, and this was right in line with his wardrobe.

“Do you like them?” Ten probed, still expectant and smiley.

“I love them!” Doyoung chimed, trying to sound as genuinely happy as he actually was. Ten was thoughtful, too. He had to add that to his list from earlier. 

Ten motioned toward his own ears. “You should put them on now!”

“In the middle of the park?”

His date looked around, like _he_ wasn’t the one who suggested the park in the first place. Something about not wanting to eat food for all of their dates. Doyoung _loved_ food, but he was willing to compromise with Ten -- for now. At least he was cute when he played dumb like right now. “I could put them on for you,” Ten suggested, his eyes glimmering under the lights.

Doyoung inhaled, like he was ready to say _no_ for some dumb reason like _it would clash with my outfit_ before realizing that Ten probably really wanted this or he wouldn’t have asked. “We could go back to your place and try them on there?” he counter-offered.

Ten frowned. “It’s okay,” he pouted, the light disappearing from his eyes. Doyoung instantly regretted being so difficult about everything.

“No, no, please, I don’t know why I was being dumb, babe,” Doyoung pleaded. “Please put them on Ten.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

“I’ll be careful,” Ten offered, a small smile reappearing. Ten closed the distance and started putting the first earring in, trying to be as delicate and careful as possible.

It was dumb, Doyoung had decided. Dumb that he would play with Ten like that, especially when Ten had been nothing but the perfect partner for the past eight weeks. He couldn’t have wished for that date night to get him a better match. It was perfect -- Ten was perfect. He pushed and pulled him in all the right ways, and he felt so normal, so natural with Ten. It felt right.

When Ten finished putting in the second earring, he stepped back, taking in his handiwork. “You look beautiful,” Ten gleefully reported, shooting a thumbs-up Doyoung’s way.

Doyoung wasn’t so sure, and he pulled out his phone to take a selfie. Using his free hand, he yanked Ten over so he could be in the picture. Even though Ten was unnaturally pale (and cold sometimes too?), he loved taking pictures, flashing a peace sign and a huge smile for the camera. He was really pleased with that selfie, even if standing next to Ten made him look approximately three times uglier. Ten was just _so_ pretty. He was right, though: the earrings _did_ look good. Doyoung still kinda wanted to go to Ten’s apartment and adjust them a little.

“They look amazing,” Doyoung agreed. “Don’t you live around here? We could go stop by for food or to rest?”

“Our apartment is really a mess,” Ten quickly fired back. “Besides, it’s getting late, and I think Donghyuck has a long day tomorrow.”

“Oh,” Doyoung replied, trying to sound a little disappointed. He had been wanting to go over to their apartment for a while now. He was still curious about that moonshine that he found. At least, he didn’t think he was imagining that when he sobered up the next day? He was also curious about Ten’s room. For some reason, he thought that he might find some deep, dark, scary skeletons in his closet to somehow ruin everything he had fallen in love with about Ten. Not that he _wanted_ that, he was just a bit of a pessimist. Ten had been challenging that pessimism lately -- he felt happier around Ten, and he wanted it to stay that way forever. Maybe that’s why he was more than a little disappointed that Ten shot down going to his apartment not once but twice.

“I should also probably go to bed soon…” Ten commented, his voice trailing off until it was inaudible. “But… could I kiss you good night?”

Doyoung looked up, seeing Ten blush a little. They had been dating for eight weeks now, so of course they’d gone farther than a kiss. They weren’t _chaste_ , but they weren’t sex addicts either. Still, something about Ten’s hesitant reaction made him think that it might be a little more than a kiss on the cheek, and that this non-kiss-on-the-cheek meant a little more than the others. “Yes,” Doyoung quietly answered. “Please.”

Ten nodded, which was ridiculously cute because he had never seen Ten get this shy around him. No, Ten was usually the confident one, and Doyoung was the panicked one. Not that Doyoung wasn’t panicking about the very real, very imminent concept of Ten kissing him on the lips. Maybe he had fantasized about Ten’s plump, featherlight lips a little more than he cared to admit to Ten or anyone else. And now Ten was steadily closing the distance between Doyoung and those wonderful, kissable lips.

His date was slow at first, hesitant to challenge Doyoung’s lips too much. He slowly eased into the kiss, and Doyoung felt himself craning down, chasing Ten’s lips as he rhythmically prodded Doyoung along. Meanwhile, he felt Ten’s hand move from the back of his shoulders to the back of his head, pulling on his hair a little. Doyoung’s hands drifted a little lower, resting on the smaller boy’s ass. Their whole bodies were getting into it, moving in sync with each other like they were made for each other. Ten kept kissing, sucking away until all Doyoung tasted was Ten’s cherry-tinted lips. Until he tasted something else.

“Ow!” Doyoung protested, pulling back a little. He brought his finger to his lips because he definitely felt something sharp in the middle of that last kiss. He dabbed his lip and then inspected his finger, seeing blood stains as he expected. He looked over at Ten, who had his mouth open and seemed confused by what had happened. Doyoung immediately focused on Ten’s teeth, and his eyes widened when he realized what had cut his lip.

“Fangs…” Doyoung murmured. “You have fangs!?”

Ten quickly went into a panic, bringing one of his hands up to his mouth. Doyoung watched, the realization of what happened still settling in while Ten caught up with his own discovery that he had cut Doyoung’s lip with his fangs. Ten inspected his own finger, finding some of Doyoung’s blood coming off of his tooth. “I’m sorry,” Ten pleaded. “I’m so sorry, Doyoung.”

“What the hell, Ten!” Doyoung shouted. “I thought -- those are real, aren’t they? You fucking lied to me!”

“I didn’t mean for you to find out like this, I just got excited,” Ten hurried out, his voice starting to get hoarse and his eyes glistening with tears. “I’m really sorry, I --”

“-- You _lied_ to me!” Doyoung pressed, his anger boiling over the more Ten apologized. He _knew_ it. This was too fucking good to be true. “You’re a vampire, aren’t you?”

Ten looked down, probably realizing that his little house of lies was folding on itself. “Yes,” he finally admitted.

“Donghyuck too?”

The shorter boy reluctantly nodded. How fucking deep did his lies go? How the hell did he get into that bar?

“I can’t believe it,” he snapped. “I can’t believe how deep your lies go, Ten. When were you gonna tell me the truth? After we’d been dating for six months? A year? When I finally opened your -- your _blood_ fridge sober?”

Ten still couldn’t look him in the eye. “I -- I don’t know…”

“‘Moonshine’ my ass. How did you even get into that bar for the speed-dating? An enchantment? A magical trinket? Some special vampire power? You know what, I don’t want to know.”

“Doyoung, please, I just --”

“I don’t care, Ten. That place is humans-only for a reason. I’m not here to be your damn plaything.”

“It wasn’t like that!”

Doyoung tutted, jamming his hands into his pockets. “Fuck you, Ten,” he finished, turning around and storming off toward the subway.

* * *

Doyoung fumbled with his keys, finally getting into his apartment. Taeyong was still up, even though Doyoung made a stop at the convenience store to grab a small tub of ice cream to drown his anger and sorrows in before crying himself to sleep.

“How’d your date go?” Taeyong expectantly asked, waving a wooden spoon that he was about to put in the dishwasher. “Did you _kiss?_ ”

“Yeah, we fucking did,” Doyoung bitterly replied, yanking his shoes off near the doorway. “We kissed until his fangs popped out and he got a taste of my blood. He fucking lied to me, Taeyong! He’s a _vampire_ , for God’s sake!”

Doyoung heard Taeyong drop the wooden spoon in the dishwasher, walking out of the kitchen and toward the front door where Doyoung was still standing. The older boy wrapped him up into a hug, his pixie glitter rubbing off onto Doyoung’s hands a little. He needed this right now, though, and Taeyong was good at it. “I’m sorry, Doyoungie,” Taeyong murmured. “He sounded so human when you talked about him.”

Doyoung snorted. “He seemed like it, too.”

*

***

* * *

***

*

Two days. Two weeks. Hell, it could’ve been two months, and Ten wouldn’t know the difference. Vampires were known for wanting to keep their windows closed and their rooms dark -- shit, that stereotype should’ve died when sunscreen was invented -- but Ten hadn’t opened in his window in two-somethings. After Doyoung caught him in his massive web of lies… after he made his coffin, he now had to sleep in it. And sleep in it he did.

(He didn’t actually sleep in a coffin. Those went out of style in the 1700s.)

Not that he was actually sleeping much. It was more like a constant state of half-awake, half-hysterical stupor when he went from hugging his blankets to his pillows to anything else he could wrap his arms around and pretend like it was Doyoung and his bunny-like smile and ripe strawberry smell. He didn’t even like fruit (or strawberries), but Doyoung had a nice human smell, too. And all Ten could do was roll around in his bed whining to himself about how Doyoung dumped him. Doyoung dumped him and he was a whining, crying, sniveling mess because of it.

And who wouldn’t be? Doyoung was the best guy he had ever dated, Ten had quickly decided. Johnny had his moments, but Doyoung… crap, Doyoung was everything he wanted and more. Instead of cherishing that, he kept his… his _boyfriend_ trapped in a maze of lies that came crashing down. Hell, he couldn’t even blame Doyoung for dumping him. If some asshole would’ve pulled that on him, he would’ve dumped them too. He treated Doyoung like crap, and maybe he did deserve better.

But he _loved_ him. He loved him so goddamn much. Ten loved him so much that it made everything hurt right now. Everything inside of him hurt more than he could imagine, even though he was locked in a fortress of soft pillows and blankets of his own making for the past two-somethings. He was surrounded by softness, but everything ached.

“ _Hyung!_ ”

Ten rolled over in his bed, turning away from the door. And then there was Donghyuck, who had banged on his door intermittently. The kid had never experienced heartbreak before because of his perfect relationship with Mark Lee, but he felt the never-ending need to coach Ten through his own problems. _Not all of us can find a Mark,_ he thought for the umpteenth time during his perpetually-single status.

“Hyung, it’s been two days, and I _know_ you haven’t had anything. Not even the shitty Type O. You need to drink _something_ or you’ll actually die. Not that fake vampire dying that we always joke about.”

So it had only been two days.

Leave it to Donghyuck to stick his oversensitive nonfunctional nose in another place where it doesn’t belong.

“Go away,” Ten toothlessly challenged. He didn’t even bother to shout because he knew Hyuck and his freakishly good ears could hear him anyways.

Ten heard Donghyuck sigh through the door. “You leave me no choice, Tenny-hyung.”

A few moments later, a loud _BANG_ came from his door, and it sure as hell sounded like Donghyuck was trying to break it down. When another _BANG_ came a few seconds after the first, he decided to relent before Donghyuck actually caused some problems with their landlord. “Okay, okay, I’ll let you in, _stop it, Donghyuck_.”

Ten wobbled off of his bed, unlocking the door. He hurried back to his bed and flopped into the pile of blankets and pillows strewn everywhere. It probably looked ridiculous to his roommate, who quickly entered after he unlocked the door.

“You need to drink up _now_ , hyung.”

“What if I’d just rather die,” Ten countered, his voice not sounding nearly as threatening as he was hoping. Stupid blankets muffling his stupid vibe. “Maybe I’ll get reincarnated as a human who can properly love Doyoung and… and not be _this_.”

Donghyuck sighed again, wandering over toward Ten’s double bed and sitting down on the edge of the mattress. “You mean a sad mopey sack of potatoes who hasn’t left bed in two days?” Donghyuck suggested, placing the blood flask on Ten’s nightstand. “Sorry, I think that’s a fundamental personality trait that’ll follow you around everywhere you go, including as whatever human you _might_ get reincarnated as -- you know, that human that’s 20 years younger than tall, dark, and handsome.”

Sometimes he really hated how much of a smartass Donghyuck was.

“Maybe I want to die so I don’t have to deal with you as a roommate anymore,” he flatly replied.

Donghyuck punched him through the blanket. “Or _maybe_ ,” he dramatically countered, “You can go convince Doyoung to get back together with you by promising never to ever lie to him ever again and then you won’t have to be my roommate anymore because you’ll move in with your boyfriend and I’ll move in with mine and we can go on double-dates at the bowling alley because you’re not gonna be an idiot and literally _die_ from not drinking this nice Type A blood that I so kindly brought you from the fridge, you lazy heartbroken twat.”

“And what if I don’t want to?” Ten petulantly answered.

“Then I swear to Dracula I will force you to drink it.”

Ten sneered from under the blankets. “ _How_?”

“I’ve been going to the gym, hyung,” Donghyuck answered. “With Mark.”

“And have you been doing anything but look pretty and watch?”

Donghyuck paused for a moment. “I leaned on an elliptical machine for about 30 seconds.” Before Ten could respond, he felt Donghyuck start rubbing his back through the blanket, the younger boy trying to be as consoling as vampire-ly possible. “You know, I really think you should just come clean about how you feel, hyung. It sucks seeing you like this, and I know you were really happy with Doyoung. Maybe you should just tell him how you feel, apologize, and sell yourself as better than any human he could find. Damnit, hyung, you’re better than any human _or_ vampire I’ve ever met, including Moon Taeil, and his makeup videos are _amazing_.”

Ten felt a fresh batch of tears tugging at his eyelids, demanding to be released soon. He finally decided to shed his covers, sitting up and looking over at Donghyuck. “I’ve tried texting him, Hyuckie. Calling, too. He doesn’t answer. Doyoung doesn’t want to talk to me anymore. It’s over.”

“Or maybe he just needs a break?” Donghyuck quickly retorted. “You did lie to him. His entire conception of you as a person was basically a lie, and he has to sort through that. Give him another day or two to realize that just because you’re a vampire doesn’t mean you’re a monster. Let him remember all those cute sappy things you said in the dining room a few weeks ago.”

“-- _I told you not to listen!_ ”

“It’s so hard not to, hyung,” Donghyuck shamelessly explained, shrugging a little. “But, yeah, let him remember why he liked you in the first place and then give him the extra push to get him back on your lap. Or you in his lap.”

“Why am I taking advice from an 18 year old,” Ten muttered under his breath.

“Somebody is in someone’s lap, and it’ll all be thanks to Lee Donghycuk, the relationship fixer.”

Something told Ten that the glare he shot Donghyuck’s way didn’t in any way stop his roommate’s delusional grandstanding. 

Even if he was mostly right.

* * *

Half of his brain was screaming at him, telling him that this was definitely the stupidest idea he had ever had. The other half was pining to see Doyoung, to be in the presence of his bunny smile, warm doe-like eyes, and sweet-sounding melodic voice. He was fighting with himself: it was too soon, but not soon enough; too raw, but too numbing; too much, but also too little. He wasn’t ready for Doyoung, but he didn’t know if he’d ever be ready. 

Which is how he ended up at the bar they first met at two months ago. It was well past midnight, but Ten was still holding out hope that Doyoung would be just as restless as him, that he would need to see Ten as much as Ten needed to see him. The bartender had long since given up on him, still nursing his first drink, the ice cubes melted, and the cocktail umbrella submerged in the fruity liquor. Fortunately, they weren’t going to kick him out because it was a slow Sunday night, and the bar wasn’t even half-full. He managed to keep the cocktail down this time, considering it was mostly water by the time he started sipping.

Actually, the only reason he went out was to see Doyoung. He didn’t bother to change out of his periwinkle-colored hoodie, his bedhead-looking hair sticking out all over the place. He just wanted to see Doyoung, to explain himself like Donghyuck had told him to do. Every time the front door swung open, he immediately perked up toward the door, hoping it was the guy he was looking for.

Until just past 2 am, it wasn’t him.

Ten was getting ready to pack it up when the chime above the front door rang through the quiet neighborhood bar. Ten almost didn’t bother looking up, but his curiosity caught the better of him and he swung around just in time to see Doyoung scanning up and down the bar, his eyes swollen and his wardrobe choices equally as sad as Ten’s. His heart skipped a beat when he realized that it was actually Doyoung -- when his brain caught up with what his eyes were seeing.

He hesitated a moment, then lifted up his hand, waving over at Doyoung. He tried to smile a little, to seem a little less sad now that Doyoung was in his life.

Doyoung saw him, and his expression soured even more, his pout turning into a frown. Instead of walking further into the bar, Doyoung turned around, and walked right back out. 

Ten immediately started panicking: “Wait, Doyoung!” he shouted from across the bar, sliding off of his barstool and sprinting toward the door. By the time he was outside, he looked up and down the dark, empty street. No one -- not even Doyoung -- was walking up and down the street, alleyways and crossroads on either side of the bar, a park across the street. He had half a mind to choose a direction and chase after Doyoung just for the chance to talk to him, but then he remembered he hadn’t paid yet. Quickly fishing out his wallet, he pulled out what seemed like enough cash.

Turning around, the bartender met him at the door, yanking the cash out of his hand. “You’re not welcome here anymore, buddy,” he gruffly said. Ten tried not to let that sting too much.

Instead, he chose the wrong direction and didn’t find Doyoung.

*

***

* * *

***

*

Figures that his dim-witted blind date was in the shitty part of town. At least this time it was a dumbass human instead of a dumbass non-human who thought they could get with him _despite_ using a human-centric dating app and _explicitly stating_ that he was only into human dudes right now. No, tonight’s dude was just an asshole, plain and simple. Hotheaded, demanding, and uncaring, he was basically the exact opposite of Ten.

Ten.

Four weeks after they broke up, and _somehow_ Doyoung always came back to him. Every time he wanted to compare his latest rebound date with his version of an ideal boyfriend, he kept returning to Ten. _He wasn’t as funny as Ten_ , or _She wasn’t as pretty as Ten_. Tonight’s loser was _not even one-tenth as caring and handsome and friendly and loving as Ten._ It was like Ten was the benchmark, the rubric he kept thinking of whenever he wanted to score a date with his stupidly analytical mind. It had been four weeks and he was still obsessed with Ten. He was stupidly obsessed with Ten, and it didn’t seem to matter how many rebound dates he went on or how many times Yuta told him to forget about him or how many times he went out of his way to walk by Ten’s apartment building just to see if the light was on.

He didn’t even know which room was Ten’s, now that he thought about it.

In fact, now that he thought about it, he was actually pretty close to Ten’s apartment building.

He could walk there right now.

Doyoung peered down the street leading toward Ten’s apartment building. It was like it was out of a movie: dimly-lit with the lone streetlight flickering off and on, dark, foreboding, trashed, and everything that a twink like Doyoung should avoid. Why didn’t he just talk to Ten when they were in the nice, comfy, warm bar?

So he walked down the street to Ten’s.

And he immediately regretted it.

He tried to look as intimidating as possible while also shrinking into nothingness. He could kinda pull off both, wearing big black boots, a black leather jacket, and dark gray jeans. Doyoung had convinced himself that he was basically invisible, that he was untouchable. Besides, he only had a few blocks to go.

Three more blocks to his apartment building, he calculated.

Doyoung jammed his hands into his pocket. He focused his gaze downward, trying to keep to himself. The street was empty, it wasn’t like he was gonna piss anybody off. He just didn’t want to take any chances. Just like how he didn’t want to take any chances with Ten. No, he didn’t want a _vampire_ for a boyfriend.

He kept thinking about those fangs, about how they pricked his lips, how they’d feel on his smooth skin.

Two more blocks, he thought as he crossed the street.

It wasn’t like he _hated_ Ten. He was pissed as hell that Ten lied to him for all those dates. That their entire relationship was predicated on a lie. But… but everything _after_ the lie was damn good. 

Doyoung looked up, and he immediately noticed another person on the other side of the street in the next block. Similar to him, the other person was wearing a dark hoodie and dark pants, hands jammed into their pockets. But instead of staring at the ground like Doyoung was, the other person was fixated on him. Even from a block away in the near-total darkness, Doyoung could tell that the hooded figure was looking his direction, that their hood was pointed his direction. Doyoung’s eyes fell back down to the ground, but when he glanced back up, the other figure was even closer and still looking at him.

One more block.

Doyoung was going to get across the street before the other dude could intercept him, but he was going to have to take a right and go a more indirect route to get to Ten’s apartment. At this point, it was more for safety than to see Ten. Doyoung sped up, trying to make his strides longer and quicker. He glanced behind him, and whoever it was seemed to be catching up somehow. Doyoung’s adrenaline was starting to spike, and he had half a mind to start sprinting. Really, he was about to sprint… as soon as he got to the next corner, he was going to dive left and sprint.

“Stop!”

Doyoung broke into a sprint mid-stride, but a strong grip pulled him back. Doyoung panicked, he was about ready to fight like hell, but the person who grabbed him spun him around faster than he could comprehend. He recognized the two large dark eyes staring back at him, the cheekbones, the jawline, the tousled blue-gray hair. Ten was following him?

“Ten, what the _f_ \--”

“Doyoung, _stop_ , and get behind me,” Ten commanded, his voice sharp and commanding. 

Ten stepped forward, and Doyoung looked past him to see the same shadowy figure from before. Ten… Ten wasn’t that dude?

“Back off,” Ten threatened, his voice going deeper than Doyoung thought it could. The hooded figure was close enough, and Doyoung could see their deep, blood red eyes but not much else. They were like a shadow. Instead of pressing their advantage, the hooded figure stopped.

“Back,” Ten repeated. “ _Off_.”

No movement from either of them. Doyoung was pretty sure he had stopped breathing.

“I won’t hesitate, bitch.”

Somehow, that was enough. The hooded figure turned around and started walking the other direction, hands going back into their pockets. When the person made it to the end of the block, Ten swirled back around, his own eyes shifting from red back to their normal dark brown color, his fangs retracting. Doyoung had so many fucking questions, all of them burning to get asked right now. He was too confused to be angry.

“Ten, how -- when… _why_?”

The other boy shook his head. “How about we talk somewhere else unless you wanna get jumped by another succubus?”

“That was a woman? I could’ve sworn --”

“-- _Walk_ ,” Ten insisted, grabbing Doyoung by the hand and dragging him down the last block to his apartment. For a small dude, Ten was surprisingly strong, his grip practically bone-crushing. Then he remembered his anatomy class -- vampires _do_ have increased strength, even if they look pale and somewhat gaunt. Ten kept dragging him along, but he was too busy trying to keep up to ask his million questions. It didn’t take long for Ten to pull him into the lobby of his apartment building, pulling out his phone.

“I’m calling you a taxi,” Ten flatly reported, completely ignoring what was probably the most shocked expression Doyoung had ever plastered onto his face, like, ever. 

Doyoung tried to seem even more upset than he was before, but none of it really affected Ten. Eventually, Doyoung just decided to pull Ten’s phone out of his hand, pressing the _End Call_ button. “Why did you help me?”

Ten’s brow furrowed. “Because you were in trouble?”

“But we broke up!” Doyoung countered.

“Which doesn’t mean I don’t care about you?”

“But -- _but_...”

Doyoung’s voice trailed off, unable to come up with a response to Ten being a decent human being. A decent vampire, actually. It took Ten approximately two minutes to remind him why those eight weeks were amazing. 

Ten crossed his arms. “Look, I know you broke up with me. You had every right to, I lied to you, Doyoung. The first thing I did was lie to you,” the shorter boy sighed, looking down at the ground. He faked a smile, bringing his head back up to stare at Doyoung. “But I don’t think you deserve to get jumped?”

Doyoung chewed on his lip. “Aren’t you mad at me?” he asked.

“Not as mad as I am at myself.”

How did he have an answer for everything?

“Why did you even want to date a human!?” Doyoung asked, trying and failing to seem less hysterical. “There are plenty of cute vampires! You have Donghyuck!”

Ten scoffed. “Because vampires are dramatic, territorial, and have huge egos. I just wanted a nice relationship with a dude who didn’t feel like he needed to eat my face off -- _in a bad way_ \-- if I slept in the wrong side of the coffin, if you catch my drift? Besides, you wanted the same thing.”

“It’s not the same,” Doyoung retorted.

“You went to that speed dating event just like I did!”

“It’s not the same, okay!” he repeated. “Do you -- do you think that’s the first time I’ve almost been jumped walking around the shitty parts of town? Do you think I was never bullied by the upperclassmen magical guys, the ones who liked to torture me? Do you think every vampire, werewolf, incubus, demon, every _whatever_ treats me like you do, Ten? Like I’m not some sexual play toy? I’m not demanding to be treated like a prince, but _shit_ , you’re the first person, human or non-human, to treat me like one, Ten.”

By the time Doyoung finished, Ten’s mouth was hanging down like an “o” and his eyes were wide. Meanwhile, Doyoung was fighting back tears. “Shit… shit I’m sorry, Doyoungie, I --” Ten babbled, rubbing the back of his neck. “Can I… can I give you a hug?”

Doyoung let out a hoarse laugh, a tear streaming down his cheek. “Yes please, god, please Ten.”

Without hesitating, Ten rushed forward, his arms outstretched and wrapping around Doyoung as tightly as he could. “I missed you so much,” Ten murmured. “And I’m so sorry that I lied to you.”

“Shit, Ten, I’m so sorry I pushed you away,” Doyoung pleaded. “I’m so sorry.”

Ten nuzzled his head into Doyoung’s shoulder. “Can we start over?” Ten asked, his voice light and muffled by the fabric of the taller boy’s undershirt. “Can we go back to where we were before?”

“Yes,” Doyoung whispered, enjoying the moment. He was enjoying the feeling of Ten, his very non-human boyfriend in his arms. But, even if he wasn’t human like he specified in every dating app and matchmaking event he went to, _shit_ , Ten seemed the most human out of all of them. A human with _benefits_ , he had decided. With fangs and stamina and lots of high-quality sunblock. He couldn’t even have garlic, and he might have to sleep in a coffin, but he could deal with all that to have Ten like this in his arms.

“Wait, I have one question, Tenny.”

“Anything,” Ten murmured.

“Do vampires really sleep in coffins?”

Ten leaned back, entirely amused by the question.

“Only if our cute boyfriends are into it.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! As always, comments and kudos are deeply appreciated <3 Feel free to check out my [main Tumblr](http://shuuvee.tumblr.com). This story was based on a prompt from my [shared NCT headcanon Tumblr](http://ncth0ts.tumblr.com), so please feel free to check that blog out! And, as always, thank you @rendawnie for beta-reading, feedback, and general encouragement <3


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